Land reference-book.



v PATENTED DEC. 25, 1906. A. B. MITCHELL & s. SMITH, J3.

LAND REFERENCE BOOKQ APPLIOATIOH HLEI) JAN. 9. 1906.

Y Svwemm K awk, 15', Ali/chew Witnesses v n: NORRIS FBTIRS C0,, WASHINGTON. n. c.

N TED sr -rns PATENT OFFICE- ARTHUR B. MITCHELL- AND STEPHEN SMITH, JR, OF BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, 'ASSIGNORS OE ONErTHIRD TO WALTER MOORE, OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, ALABAMA. I

\ LAND REFERENCE- BOOK.

have invented new and useful Improvements in Land Reference-Books, of which-the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to improvements in land-books comprising data whereby the ownership of all property within a given district, such as a county or a groupofcounties,

may be readily ascertained.

It is an object-of this invention to so arrange the data relating to the ownership of.

property that by cross-referencing not only the property owned by a given person in a district, but also the owner of any given piece of property, may be readily found.

' It is a further important feature of our invention that the property-owners are shown arranged alphabetically and then given consecutive numbers, with a brief description of the property owned by each opposite his name in t e index of'owners. As a crossreference property-index the several sections of each township are so arranged that in the simplest andmost obvious manner the owners of the different parts of that section may be indicated on the property-plots by the use of the numbers given to the several owners in the index of owners.

It is another object of our invention to arrangefthis data so as to indicate clearly the character of the title to the property, whether for surface rights, mineral rights, or fee-simple. r

One advantage of ourinvention consists in the alphabetical arrangement of the owners, by means of which any owner of property in the .given district may be readily located and the extent and character of his ownership ascertained without an extended search or the probability of a mistake, which is liable to occur where the names of owners follow indiscriminately forthe whole district.

It is a further advantage of'our invention,

as used for districts whe'rethe mineral rights [are of great importance, that both the property. and owners index should show at a glance the ownership both of surface and mineral rights in any given piece of property,

and this being made clear itis of great im Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed January 9, 1905- Serial No. 240.240.

Patented Dec. 25, 1906.

.portance in enabling one by quick reference to ascertain the character of ownership subsisting in the various parts in the district.

These and other advantages which are derived from the arrangement and combination of data in ourpresent book are more had to the accompanying drawin wherein the figure indicates our improved land-book open so as to show one page of the index of owners and a page on the property-index for the purpose of illustrating both' sections of the book and the manner in which crosspleference between the same may be readily ad. According to the drawing, the book 1 comprises any desired number of sheets 2, which constitute the index of owners and are subdivided into vertical columns. The column 3 to the left is headed No. and is adapted to receive the consecutive numbers given to the owners ofthe property within the given district after the same have been alphabetically arranged. The 7 column 4 is headed Name of owner, and in this column the owners of all property in the district will be alphabetically listed. are respectively headed T, R, S, for the purpose of indicating the township, range, and section within which the property or any given owner is situated. Column 8, headed Title-{Wis designed to receive the letters M. or S. to indicatejmineral or surface title or E to indicate the fee-simple title in the property which is listed under the column 9, headedDescription of property, wherein a brief description is set forth which willenable the property to be readily located. The horizontal lines on these ages receive thenames of the owners, a su cient number of pages being used to include all of -the present owners in the district and to leave a numberof'blank pages for the use of future owners and transferees. Each owner will have a separate horizontal line for each separate piece of property which he owns. Hence all his holdings in the district are col lected under his name and the same reference-number. When the data for been properly secured and all of the owners have been alphabetically listed and their property described in column 9, it will be fullyhereinaft'er described, reference being Columns 5, 6, and 7 the given district has 4 5 owns the give to.the

I 5 erty and the character .20 township and bers 1,

however, there are ten horizontal 3 5 it into four columns 13. first of these columns, in a vertical column 14 4 ((M R :7 *into four 60 N. W. i of section 1.

evident that by a quick reference it will be possible to ascertain the full extent of ownership of any given party Within the district, as well as the character of title under which he property and a description of the property. Such data, while being of great service, will not meet the full needs of a reference-book cf the character which it is our purpose to providenamely, one which will owner of the book full data of every kind relating not only to the parties owning property within the given district, but which will also enable him to readily ascertain the owner of any given piece of propofthe title therein. With this object in view we provide the 'book with any desired number property-index sheets 10, which. are headed Township Range and filled out to indicate the range of the district which the The sheets are then divided by horizontal columns 11 and by a vertical column 12. The vertical column is headed See, and in this column is placed the num- 2, 3, 850., up to 36, one for each section, each number being placed to the left cf one of the horizontal columns 11. These horizontal columns may be arranged in any desired number to each sheet. As shown, columns to each page. Hence a township which comprises thirty-six sections will occupy four pages. Each section-column 11 is subdivided by three horizontal lines, subdividing To the left of the book covers.

headed Title, is inserted the letters S. R, and opposite the third column 13 for each section-column is inserted the letters The sheet is further subdivided main vertical columns headed N. W. 1}, N. E. i, S. E. t, and S. W. i, and each of these main columns are subdivided into four columns headed, respectively,

N. W., N. E., S. E., and S. W. Each township within the given district has its thirty-six horizontal section-columns 11, and for the purposes of providing for transfers and changes of property we make the reverse of each sheet a duplicate of the face of the sheet,

so that it comprises the same section-numbers and the same vertical and horizontal columns, this second sheet being used solely for the purpose of indicating transfers and changes in ownership.

By reference to the drawing it will be seen that the several intersecting columns give four spaces for each quarter of a quarter-section, there being four under the N.W. of the Of each of these four spaces two are reserved for surface rights and two for mineral rights, and sufiicient space is left to indicate therein any desired number of owners, or even, if desired, a number of transfers, the owners being indicated in the of the surface rights of the N. E.

manner as follows: After the index of own ers has been completed and each of the owners in the district has received his number in column 3 that owner will be thereafter identified by that number, and accordingly if John Wilson be numbered 93 and be the owner 3; of the N.VV. :1- of section 3 this will beindicated by setting his number 93 in the N. E. column of the NW. column opposite the section 3 in the horizontal column headed S. 1%., as shown. The property-index will therefore show that N o. 93 owns the surface rights of this piece of property, and if owner No. 11 should own the mineral rights the number 11 will be inserted opposite the horizontal column M. it, as shown. After the whole property in the district has been thus cross-referenced as to ownership by the insertion of the corresponding numbers for the several owners further transfers and changes in titles may be indicated upon the reverse face of the sheet, a red-ink mark or other desired mark being used to show that the property in question has been transferred. It is obvious, however, that the pages may be slightly enlarged, in which case the present ownership of property may be inserted in the horizontal columns opposite the letters M. R. and S. R. and transfers indicated in the blank spaces left in the column below each of these headed columns, which may be referred to as the columns 13. When the property-index has been thus filled out, it will be evident that if a party refers to the book for the purpose of ascertaining the condition of title relating to any part or division of the district he can readily turn to the township including the same, and by reference to the horizontal column corresponding in number to the section in which the property is located he can readily ascertain by use of the horizontal columns t e facts as to whether the property is owned in fee-simple or whether the mineral rights have been sold separately and can also ascertain whether the same lands are owned by same party and who this party is by reference to his consecutive number in the index of owners. Also where it is desired to ascertain the extent of ownership of any party or company in any given district this is condensed opposite their name in the owners index, and more detailed information may be gained by noting the township and section numbers of the various properties they own and referring to the same in the index of property. It is to be noted here that the column headed Title will clearly show to a person following up the latter line of inquiry whether the properties of the person or company in question be mineral or surface or fee. This information will therefore supply full data with regard to any given district, and when this has once been completed it may be readily kept up-to-date by noting of trans- I vious from the manner in which the data is subdivided and the ease with fers in the manner described on the reverse sheet and by the further listing of owners on the last pages 2 last consecutive numbers of the original owners.

This system is simple and effective and rnishes the owners morefull and complete information than any other landbooks or abstract-books which are now in use, and its advantages as to ease of reference will be obreferencing'may be had. I

In the drawing the book is shown open at page W No. 582 of the index of owners and township 16, page 609, of the property-index.

For the sake of illustration only a part of'the township-sheet is shown'filled out, it being understood that in practice'each part of the whole township will be filled in with its proper owner. As indicating the mannerfor showing transfers, it will be noted that No. 95- sold out the mineral rights of the NW. i of section 2 to No. 18, andit appears by reference to the index of owners that J. B. Wood is the transferrer. .The transferee could be readily ascertained by turning back to No. 18 in the list of owners. Also where the quarter-section is divided betweentwo owners, as inthe case of mineral rights in the N. Eiof the S. W.% of section2 this may be indicated as shown, or 92 may appear in r the space below 94. -This will not confuse as to atransfer by reason of the fact that numeral94 will not be struck out. Itmay, however, be advisable to have all transfers entered upon the reverse side of this sheet,

which, as before stated, has a correspondingarrangement of columns.

Our invention may be readily adapted for 1 use in towns or cities,- in which case the blocks of the city will be numerically ar-' ranged in the vertical column 12 heading the horizontal columns 13, one block to each col-.

umn,

correspond in number with the lots in eachand the several vertical columns will block.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is'

1. In a property reference system, the

combination with entry-pages ruled into a.

plurality of columns which are appropriately designated to receive the names of owners of property in a given district and a brief description of their property, and a set of reference-numerals arranged consecutively on said entry-pages, one opposite each owner, of

entry-pages ruled'in sets of vertical and horizontal columns appropriatelydesignated to receive matter pertaining to the quarters of the quarters of each section in a given township, and subdivided by said intersecting colof the latter index shown open at right angles to the covers, where the new owners are given numbers following'the which crossrate entries.

v umns into spaces for the reception of sepa 2. The combination with entry-pages pro- I vided with columns suitably designated to receive a list of the owners of property in a "given district, of the property owned by said owners, and of reference-indicia which have a normal sequence, names of owners entered on said pages and arranged alphabetlcally,

and reference-indicia placed in consecutive order on sa d pages beside the names of ownin sets of vertical and horizontal columns, the vertical columns being appropriately des.

i gnated to recelve section-numbersin a given township and matter pertaining to the quarters of the quarters of each section, and the horizontal columns being ap ropriately designated to indicate the surface rights and mineral rights for each section. I

' 3. The combination with pages ruled into columns and appropriately designated to receive a list of the property-owners in a given district, the township, range andsection in.

columns designated to receive matter pertaining to the surface and mineral rights, said pages being ruled into vertical columns, one of which is appropriately designated to receive the section-numbers, theother of said vertical columns being appropriately designated to receive matter pertaining to the quarters of the quarters of each section, sub: -105.

stantially as described.

4. In a land reference-book, the combine: tion of a set of pages ruled into vertical col- 'ers to which they refer, of entry-pages ruled umns and headed No., Name of owner,

T., It, 8., Title and Descriptionof property, in combination with sheets designated to receive matter pertaining to a given township and range and ruled into vertical columns headed See, Title, N. W. i,

NE-i, 8.11%,andS.W.%,'saidfour r15 latter columusbein sub divided each into four columns headed .W., N. E., S.E., and S. W. said pagesbeing further provided with horizontal columns headed by a numeral placed in the column headed See, each orizontal column being subdivided into 001- umns suitably designated to receive matter pertaining to surface and mineral rights, substantially as and for the purposes described.

5. In a land reference-book, sheets ruled into columns appropriately designated to receive a list .of property-owners within a given district and a brief description of the properties-owned by each in said district, names ,of owners which are entered on said sheets and arranged in alphabetical order and consecutive numbers which are placed beside the names of owners to which they refer, in combination with sheets ruled into columns appropriately designated to indicate the subdivisions of property in the given district and to receive entries pertaining to said subdivisions of property.

6. In a land reference-book comprising two sets of sheets, one set of sheets containing the names of owners of property in a given district which are alphabetically entered on said sheets, reference marks or numerals, one for each owner, which are entered consecutively on said sheets, entries opposite each owner indicating the properties owned by him, the sheets and horizontal columns into spaces for the reception of reference-entries, the vertical columns being appropriately designated to receive matter pertaining to divisions of a section, said sheets having numerals thereon ar- I ranged consecutively and disposed in a vertical column appropriately designated to indicate sections, said numerals being disposed opposite horizontal columns.

7. In a land reference-book comprising two sets of sheets, one set of sheets containing the names of owners of property in a given district which are alphabetically entered on said sheets, reference marks or numerals, one for each owner, which are entered consecutively on said sheets, entries opposite each owner indicating the properties owned by him, the sheets of said other set being subdivided by intersecting vertical and horizontal columns into spaces suitably designated for the reception of reference-entries, the vertical columns being appropriately designated to indicate divisions of a section, said sheets having numerals thereon arranged consecutively and disposed in a vertical column appropriately designated to receive matter pertaining to sections, said numerals being disposed opposite horizontal columns, the horizontal columns opposite each of said numerals being appropriately designated to receive matter pertaining to surface rights and mineral rights.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ARTHUR B. MITCHELL. STEPHEN SMITH, JR. Witnesses:

WALTER MOORE, WM. M. BETHEA. 

